Home
by MoonlitRamblings
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are in another tight situation. Can the Doctor get them out before something bad happens? Nine/Rose  no character death
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is my first Doctor Who fanfic. I have no idea if its any good or remotely in character. No one has read it nor has it been beta-ed so please try not to be too harsh. It was originally going to be a one-shot but it kept getting longer and longer so I decided to split it into a couple of chapters. Right now I'm planning on having at least four if not five chapters. They aren't going to be super long and this is probably going to be the longest. Since it was going to only be one before I hope it's split up well. This author note ended up being way longer than I thought, sorry about that ^^'. I'll let anyone who bother to stop and read this get on with the story.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything Doctor Who, but, now that I think about it, I'd love Nine's leather jacket if anyone's selling it. ;)

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

The Doctor's mind raced as he tried to get them out of the latest mess they had landed themselves in. No worlds were ending, but it was beginning to look like one of the worse trips. They had been captured, pretty standard, but also separated, not good in the very least, and it was making him more anxious than usual. He feared that they weren't going to be let go, ever. Although they weren't being sentenced to death, a small blessing as things often turned out like that.

Someone had overheard or they had been scanned without their knowledge or something like that and the bottom line was that the people in charge here had gotten wind that he was a Time Lord. They happened to be one of the places that did indeed remember who they were and decided to capture them in order to attempt to learn the secrets of time travel. Unfortunately, the inhabitants were not only none too pleasant but they were also rather intelligent—a bad combination. They took a number of safety measure most forgot about such as checking them for weapons or tools, confiscating his sonic screwdriver and even taking it out of the room as well as putting them in separate rooms.

The Doctor hated not knowing where Rose was but he knew the way to escape and save her was centered on him figuring a way out. So, he tried to put away those feelings as he assessed the situation. He had been left in a white room with guards outside the door. No windows, no table, just him and the chair he was tied to by some fabric that was developed on this planet as well as strong, surely not a very promising sign.

His mind worked quickly, but he really needed more information as to the more specific reasons behind the capture and how they planned to get any time secrets from him. He had a grim look on his face, most likely some form of torture. The fact that they had been captured obviously showed that they knew he would be unwilling to give up the information quickly. He wondered what else they knew about his people. The situation was turning worse by the second.

After a while, the door opened and a couple of men stepped in along with a guard. "Hello, Time Lord. What do they call you?"

"I'm the Doctor. Where's Rose?" he didn't need to feign the iron in his voice but he did have to work not to let the desperation through.

"Your companion is being questioned in another room," the man answered, dismissive. "Now then, onto business. We want to possess the secrets your kind discovered about time travel. We've been hoping for an opportunity like this to come up, although, we had begun to give up hope. Then, low and behold, you fell out of the sky. We had never hoped to find a real Time Lord. Most thought you were extinct."

"I'm the only one left," he said with a grim finality; it never got easier, saying that. "Rose—"

He was interrupted, "Are you really? Well, then we are very fortunate indeed. Are you willing to divulge the secrets of time travel to us? After all, if you are truly the only one left then surely it can't be violating any rules. Wouldn't it be good to share them with someone else so they don't die with you?"

"Yes, really. And no, I'm not telling you anything. Time travel is dangerous, not only to the traveler but also to the places you might go, the events you might interfere with, let only simply knowing the concepts is only part of time travel." He answered firmly, a grim look on his face.

"Surely you face those risks yourself?" the man mentioned conversationally, not at all put off by the Doctor's uncompromising stance. "Oh well, if you're sure—"

"I am."

"Then we'll just have to get it the hard way," he sighed, "I had hoped it wouldn't have to come to this." However, as he had the entire conversation, he didn't sound particularly unhappy. His whole demeanor was very flat, unemotional. Something the Doctor disliked even more than if he had seemed intentionally cruel. Instead the man merely seemed calculating and indifferent, barely a person.

He motioned to one of the other men who began to set up a variety of equipment. "We brought our newest, most power tools for you, Doctor. It is said your race was quite powerful as well as telepathic in some aspects. This technique is as well."

"What are you going to do?" the Doctor asked, as if asking for directions. He really should have researched this planet more. Most of his information must have been from further in its past than he had realized.

"Since you won't tell us we'll have to breech your mental defenses and take it by force. It's a combination technological and psychological invasive attack. It takes longer to work on some rather than others, but in the end—none have stood up against it for more than a couple days. And for you we have weeks, months. I'm a patient man." He began to help the other man and moved to place helmet type piece of the device onto the Doctor's head.

"It's not going to work," and the Doctor was fairly confident that it wouldn't. It would be near impossible to create a machine that could mentally match a Time Lord, let alone destroy one's defenses.

The man shrugged as the device began to start up, "Perhaps not right away. But it will eventually. I have time. Soon I will have access to you and your companion's minds and through them—access to an entire universe of information."

"My companion?" he asked sharply, "What are you doing to her?" His eyes bored into the man's as if trying to pull the answer from them.

"The same as we are about to do to you. She most likely possesses valuable information. We of course don't need the strongest for her. She is a type of early human, yes? They don't last long."

"Leave her alone!" the Doctor demanded, so strongly that it was easy to forget that he was the one tied up, about to be tortured. "She doesn't know anything!"

"But if she did, you would say the same thing," the man replied with a slightly raised eyebrow. "Besides, it shouldn't kill her. That's only happened a couple times. It's a very delicate process—finding just the right about of power, of pressure, someone can take. A fine line between one who can still hold out, one whose mind has been breached and one who is broken, useless. She seems fairly weak. It won't take long to break through and therefore her pain will be over soon."

"What?" he was confused. What he was saying didn't make any sense because that would mean…. "Are you interrogating her now?"

"Of course, it was much quicker to get a machine for a lesser being." And just as he said that the door opened and another worker came in with a cart containing the last pieces of the complex machine they had assembled. However, that wasn't the only thing that was let it.

A scream ripped through the air with the door now open. It was full of pain and anger and despair. It was Rose.

The man looked at the new person questioningly. He answered without prompting, "The female is proving much harder to crack than we had anticipated. We had to put her up to phase two on machine four but it doesn't to be helping to gain mental access. We are getting machine six. That should solve the problem."

The man nodded, "Very well. Perhaps one of the side effects of time travel is increased mental abilities. Have someone look into that." He seemed like he was going to continue but stopped due to a strange ripping noise.

He turned around to find the Doctor savagely tearing his way out of the chair. The head scientist looked on in mild surprise—klether clothe was extremely strong, even stronger than some metals, that's why it was used for binding. He didn't remember superior strength associated with the Time Lords.

The guard began to move forward, preparing his taser, as they didn't wish to fatally harm any prisoner but it was enough voltage to put most beings into a coma. Sometimes that made it easier to invade their minds as well. He moved steadily forward, wary as he wasn't sure what to expect. This Doctor had seemed fairly average as an opponent and, after initially struggling, he hadn't put up much of a fight, mostly concerned for his companion.

The Doctor grasped the remaining pieces of clothe in his hands as he slowly stood up from the chair. He lifted his head and stared at all of them, seemingly directly into each of the other four men's eyes, all at once. His whole demeanor had changed. Gone was the calm, intelligent, disagreeing man from before. In his place, with ice eyes, was a man inflamed with great rage and very little mercy. "Where is she?" his voice was deadly. He didn't seem to expect answer though and began striding to the door, confident—as if not getting to her wasn't even an option.

The leader motioned for the guard to take him down. Hm, rumors had been that the Time Lords were fairly unemotional, self-centered and not concerned with lesser races—leaving most other species alone. Perhaps this one was different. Perhaps that was why he was the only one left. Something else was nagging at the back of his mind, something he had heard or read.

The guard moved until he was a couple meters away before firing the taser. The electrical pulse shot out and hit the Doctor. He stopped for a moment before grasping the wires, sending hundreds of volts, and pulled. He yanked it straight out of the guard's hand, who was so surprised it was all he could to stare for the moment. _Didn't even faze him… _was his last thought before the Doctor turned it around and shot it back at him, sending him to unconsciousness.

The remaining men began to try to subtly make their way to the security button. However the Doctor was too fast and soon the other two had collapsed as well.

Finally he turned to the one he had spoken with before as he was in charge, "Where?" was all he asked, his gaze steady, unflinching, only an undercurrent of rage prevalent in his voice.

"Two doors over on the right," he answered, knowing his best hope was to answer the questions and then try for security himself. Besides, the whole building was full of guards.

"Combination?"

"Delta-alpha-six-zeta-omega-six-six," and at last he remembered. There had been stories of one Time Lord in particular. One who showed up a bit more than the others because he seemed to disobey their rules on interference and was smart enough by their standards to stay out of their power to control. The Oncoming Storm he was called. As the taser shot towards him all he thought was that he understood why…

Once the man hit the floor the Doctor was off, out the door, down the hall and punching in the combination. Soon the door clicked and he rushed in.

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><p><strong><span>AN:** Well, there it is: chapter one. I hope it wasn't too bad. Please, please give me any feedback (of course the more you say the better). Encouragement will make postings come quicker. I hope to post relatively frequently and while I know basically how it ends I am still working on. I have a relatively busy life but I'll try my best. Thanks so much for reading. :D

P.S. Anyone who wants to beta, please feel free to send me a message. I'd be pretty grateful :)


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Here is chapter two. I hope you like it.I was having a bit of a roadblock with the story overall and was hoping to have more of it done before posting again but I figured its been long enough. A variety of classes, friends, family and weather also conspired to make my life ridiculously busy and stressful-blame all of that-not me.

**Disclaimer**:I don't "officially" or "legally" own Doctor Who, but really its just a technicality.

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><p><strong>Home<strong>

**Chapter Two**

The room was very similar to his own and, sure enough, there was Rose. She was hooked up to a machine similar to his except she was held against the wall, standing instead of in a chair as he had been. Her face was screwed up in pain and she seemed to be muttering to herself, eyes moving rapidly under closed eyelids.

When the door banged open the two men in the room, an interrogator and a guard, turned to see who was there. "Who are you?" asked the interrogator with a frown, flicking a switch as he stared at the Doctor in confusion.

"Do you have clearance to be in here?" the guard demanded, as the intruder didn't look familiar; he wasn't wearing the uniform, but he had to have known the combination in order to get into the room.

Rose's eyes slowly opened in response to the quiet that followed the machine being turned off. _Was he here?_ Her tired head lifted, aching and there in the doorway was the Doctor, looking more murderous than she had ever seen him. "Doctor!" Relief and joy filled her voice.

"Rose, it's fine. I'm here to get you. We're leaving," his tone left no room for argument, confident to the point where it almost seemed to dare someone to try and stop him.

The two captors seemed to want to take up that challenge. "This prisoner isn't going anywhere. Detain him."

The guard moved forward as if to do just that but the Doctor was faster. Soon the guard was on the ground from the taser the Doctor had kept. When he moved to do the same to the other man, the taser seemed to have finally run out of power. He shook it before dropping it dismissively, moving toward Rose and the interrogator.

The man hastily began backing away, aiming to call for security but the Doctor sensed his intent and headed him off, "Oh no, you don't." He blocked the other's path. "Get her down. Right. Now."

The man seemed to find a bit of insane bravery, "No, you can't leave with her." As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he hadn't said them. The Doctor's eyes hardened and he reached over, jabbing him in the neck. Instantly the man's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell to the ground. The Doctor grimaced, he hadn't wanted to incapacitate the man. Well, actually, he wanted to do far more than that, but he knew he would eventually regret such actions. So instead he had channeled the excess electrical energy he had from his own guard's attempt at tasering him and sent it through this man through a pressure point. He would come to soon enough.

The Doctor raced over to Rose. Aside from her outburst when he first came in she had been rather quiet and the Doctor could see that whatever the machine had been doing to her was definitely harmful. She was hanging limply, pale and shaking. "Rose…" he said gently, all trace of anger gone, replaced by helplessness and worry for his companion.

She wearily opened her eyes, the effort to shout out from before having exhausted her. Before she had been holding out for him, knowing, hoping he would come get her. Telling herself, _just a bit longer_. Now that he was here she had not only felt enormous relief but also allowed the overwhelming exhaustion to overcome her, knowing she was safe. "Doctor," she gave him a tired smile.

"Oh, Rose," he reached up to untie her, "what have they done to you?"

She got a far off look in her eyes, "I'm not quite sure. First my head just hurt for a while and I started feeling really tired, like I'd run a marathon." The Doctor was going as fast as he could but these cloths weren't meant to be untied easily. There were no sharp implements around to cut them with and he no longer had the Gallifryan equivalent of adrenaline running through him making tearing them impossible. He hadn't expected her to answer as it had mainly been a rhetorical question, but now that she started talking he found he needed to know exactly what was causing her to have that look in her eyes. He wished he had found out more before taking out the guards in his room. Besides, he could tell that she seemed to want to get it off her chest.

She swallowed, words still echoing through her head like so many ghosts. "Then the pain in my head got really intense before fading away. I thought they had finally stopped. But then I saw her."

"Who?" He had one hand free now, and gently lowered her arm to his shoulder though she still winced because it had gotten quite stiff.

"It was me, but not. It was like an evil clone or something. It looked like me, knew what I knew but it hated me. The machine created it, made it appear, but it couldn't tell the machine anything. It started to talk to me. It said secret things, things only I knew and…"

He winced. Now he knew what that man had meant by psychological. It seemed to play on your deepest fears and insecurities and desires. He wished he could get this knot out faster, get them out of here. Each second they stayed here meant it was that much less time they had to escape. He also couldn't help but listen intently, needing to know everything they did to his Rose. The more he heard, the quicker his anger returned, and any guilt he had begun to feel about tasering those guards was quickly receding.

"It made me feel so….horrible, just completely horrible." She shuddered, closing her eyes. The things the other version of her still echoed through her head. _Not good enough. Never going to love you. Useless. Weak. Stupid ape. Handicap. Idiot. Trouble magnet. Worthless._ All her fears and insecurities, especially about the Doctor, laid bare and stomped on. Ground into the dirt, confirmed. She shut down hard on the memories.

"Shh. It's okay. All gone now. Here, look at me," he turned her face towards him. She looked into his eyes, "Whatever it told you couldn't be true because you, Rose Tyler, are absolutely fantastic, yeah?"

She smiled weakly. "Good, because it's time to come down now." He punctuated that with the loosening of the knot, her other arm finally free. However, she started to fall, surprised that her legs wouldn't seem to support her. Standing for so long in that position had made them go to sleep, almost numb—mostly likely on purpose by her captors.

The Dotor knew she was going down a split second after she herself realized it and quickly moved to catch her, not a difficult task due to the fact he was still right there. He slowly lowered her to the ground.

"I'm so tired…" Rose managed, closing her eyes again.

"I know, it's a side effect of that bloody machine," the Doctor told her. They had evidently found that along with mental warfare, exhaustion was a powerful tongue loosener. After all, if you're so tired you can't see straight, it's hard to even remember why or why not you're suppose to answer questions. Couple that with long-term mental attacks and he wasn't surprised their interrogation methods worked as well as they boasted.

"Come on, Rose," she seemed to be slipping back into the depressive thoughts that she had been immersed in for the past few hours. She had only held them off for so long because of him.

Her head was killing her, like someone had hit her over the head with a hammer, repeatedly. But anything was better than the memories. She strained, trying to keep them away. She looked up at the Doctor, who was crouched over her. Her wide eyes implored him as she spoke wearily and yet with a kind of nervous anxiety, "Doctor…please. Just take me home."

"Of course" _Anything, everything,_ he added silently as he gathered her up in his arms, seeing as she was in no condition to crawl, let alone run out of this hellhole. She was so light. He looked down at her for a second before he focused his attention on getting them out.

She gave a small squeak of surprise when he picked her up and began to make his way out of the room. Was he really holding her? The jostling made her head hurt more, although the pain was starting to recede, something she was infinitely grateful for. She rested her head on his chest and he pulled her closer, bracing her from the now slightly bumpier ride, he was running. She heard some faint shouts but simply pressed closer. The world in her head and the Doctor's arms seem much more real than whatever else was going on.

She was in no hurry to move; here in his arms she was safe, always safe. She kept her eyes closed. She clung to his jacket; sure her fingernails must be leaving little crescents in the supple leather. Part of her felt bad, she did like his jacket, didn't want to mess it up, but another part rather liked the idea that they would remain, a little mark that she had been there. Besides, he surely wouldn't care. She knew him well enough, he cared very little for his clothes, even less than a typical guy: as long as they were in one piece he was fine.

She could feel every step he made, his strides forming a rhythm she was familiar with even if she was usually beside him instead of being carried by him. It was immensely comforting, especially coupled with his scent. It was filtering into her, slowly filling her until she was almost drunk on it, making her sleepy instead of merely tired. She decided that scent was entirely to blame for her actions; she snuggled closer to him and his double heart beating in his chest.

The Doctor looked down at Rose in his arms. She was so light, so warm, so _fragile_. He had come far too close to losing her today. When she moved closer, a light smile on her face, he couldn't help but tighten his grip, making sure there was absolutely no chance he would let her fall. Her resilience once again astounding him, that she could smile so soon after. Perhaps she was still in shock. _Of course she was,_ he snapped at himself, but perhaps even more than he had thought. What if they had done permanent damage to his Rose?

He studied her more closely, barely sparing the mental attention to keep running in the right direction, to avoid crashing. He focused his mind on sensing hers. She had been harmed obviously, but he could sense no irreparable damage. Ones who had lost their minds or were lost in them had a certain feeling around them, one which he could sense as a Time Lord. Focusing his mental abilities as well as he could in the circumstances, he could sense no truly lasting damage. Wounds certainly, their very presence causing him pain as she should never have them, but nothing that wouldn't heal with time.

He finally reached the TARDIS and had to rearrange her a bit in order to slip the key in. She made a soft sound: a bit of a sigh, a bit of surprise and a bit of discomfort at having been dislodged from her spot in his embrace. He smiled down at her, almost indulgently, if not for the lingering sadness he couldn't banish from his gaze, and murmured quieting sounds as he opened the doors. He shut them firmly behind, not loudly, as that might push her further in her shock, but loud enough that she knew they were closed.

He could sense some of the remaining tension that hadn't dissipated with his arrival leave her body and she went a bit limper in his arms, relief flooding through her. However, the relief almost opened the door that had slammed shut on her recent memories when the Doctor came to save her. Now that she had thoughts to spare, thoughts freed up by safety, she had to lean heavily on that door in order for it to stay shut.

He could see her retreat a bit more into herself but painfully acknowledged his own inability to help her at this stage. He strode up to the console and, with no small amount of difficulty, managed to get them out of there and into the vortex. He suspected that the TARDIS was trying her best to help, sensing Rose's distress as well as his own. However, there was nothing she could do with regards to the coordinate sequence and steering he now needed to do.

He glanced down at Rose, face pressed against his jacket, grip still tight and his hearts _ached_ for her. He wished there was something he could do or say, but he hadn't the faintest idea. He nudged her gently, walking toward the captain's seat. "Gonna have to put you down in order to set the coordinates," he informed her gently.

She stirred, a frown coming over her face. She didn't expect to go somewhere new so soon. In fact, she expected to have to fight with him to leave ever, over protective him. "Coordinates? Are we going somewhere?" she asked, letting her confusion color her tone.

He frowned lightly as well. Half from his own confusion and half from apparently adding to her distress, "Well, you said you wanted to go home, yeah? So in order to get there I need to set coordinates for your mum's." Was she losing her memory as well?

Her face cleared. "Oh, no," she said, relaxing and closing her eyes once more, "I didn't mean my mum's place. I meant here, the TARDIS." She sunk back against him, "_Home_" she murmured.

He stared at the pink and yellow girl in his arms. _Home… This was her home?_ He had hoped she might see it that way, but to hear her say it… His hearts filled up. _Oh Rose. Beautiful, lovely, _fantastic_ Rose._

He tightened his grip on her briefly, a sort of hug. "Where do you want to go then? Your room?"

"Don't care," came her muffled reply, "Just don't leave. Don't wanna be alone. Please." She was past caring about sounding weak or needy. Her strength was all used up, her mind weary from the ordeal she had been put through as well as trying to block it out. She just wanted her Doctor.

"Rose…" she pushed closer in response. She loved it when he said her name like that, though she was forever unaware of what she had done to deserve such a reverent tone.

He made a decision and began to make his way out of the console room. The TARDIS sensed his intent and chimed her approval, moving the desired destination closer.

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><p><strong>AN:**There it is: chapter two. Hope it was good and still in character. Please, please review. Nothing motivates more as you know. Thanks again for reading. :D


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